paragiraffe (posts and bookmarks)

Bookmark: Why 34 is the best age to have a baby | Mail Online

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:58:07 -0400

Great news!

Bookmark: Fancy Fast Food

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:54:49 -0400

Ha, this is amusing (via yewknee).

Gnocchi

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:06:15 -0400

Today was a rare and welcome off day from baseball. With our ample free time, of course we came right home and made gnocchi and tomato sauce, both from scratch, for dinner. This is the kind of crazy stuff you get to do when you don’t have kids or responsibilities.

For the tomato sauce, we had a white onion, a couple of ripe tomatoes and the ever-present garlic. I loosely followed the 15-Minute Tomato Sauce recipe from Chez Pim. I ended up having a lot of onion for the amount of tomato I had, which I really didn’t see as a problem.

Shaun has made gnocchi a few times, and I’d say this is still a work in progress for us. I followed the gnocchi recipe on 101 Cookbooks. I wouldn’t serve it to guests yet, but, you know, I’d eat it.

And the apartment smells like an Italian kitchen now. Score!

Bookmark: everybody likes sandwiches: baked mini corn dogs

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:15:21 -0400

Does this sound like a 4th of July plan or what?

Bookmark: The Nike Experiment: How the Shoe Giant Unleashed the Power of Personal Metrics

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:22:34 -0400

I can't go without my Nike+.

Bookmark: Flip Flop Fly Ball

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:52:19 -0400

I'd buy the shapes of major league ballparks one as a poster.

Bookmark: Jones, Cox, O'Flaherty ejected in finale | braves.com: News

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:18:21 -0400

I guess it's easy to win when you pay off the umpires (with ejection video!!!).

Alcatraz

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:18:38 -0400

So there’s just this one thing I wanted to tell you about Alcatraz, which I learned on my tour of the island.

In 1969, after the facilities had been closed as a federal penitentiary, a group of Native Americans decided to take a stand and attempt to live the island, in protest against the land taken from them by the government. They claimed rights under an old treaty allowing them to occupy abandoned federal property.

Alcatraz Island is not a very friendly place to live. All of the occupants later left the island, but the standoff brought a lot of attention to relations between Native Americans and the US government.

Bookmark: Down-Home Celebrations - With This Burger, I Thee Wed - NYTimes.com

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:20:11 -0400

I think it would be fun to have Mexican taco buffet (tortillas, lots of different fillings and sauces) for a wedding dinner, except I'm kind of against buffets at weddings. Tough.

Bookmark: Who Has the Brainiest Team in Baseball? - WSJ.com

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:17:09 -0400

There are a few things wrong with this article, one being that they are PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES.

Bookmark: YouTube - Dance Off USF vs Uconn 2009 Big East Baseball Tournament as seen on PTI.

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:10:04 -0400

A better use of rain delays.

Bookmark: ‘The Daily Show’ Meets The New York Times (Times Survives) - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:55:54 -0400

Worth a read and a watch.

AT&T Park

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:01:54 -0400

In May, Shaun and I went to San Francisco for five days, and one of the big reasons we went was to see a Braves’ road game. I’ve seen AT&T Park on TV a bunch of times, so I knew it was pretty nice.

You probably already know that it’s on the water, about McCovey cove, “splash hits” and whatnot. AT&T park is a nice traditional baseball stadium, not unlike Turner Field. It has much better food that Turner Field (we have Aramark) and has a more intimate feel, seating about 10,000 fewer fans. We took a nice walk around the whole concourse level while the Braves were taking batting practice. On the other hand, the video scoreboard at Turner Field is about three times the size and our announcer is way better. We like hanging out on the concourse level behind home plate, but at AT&T park that whole area is blocked off with food stands.

I wasn’t sure how going to an away game would be. Atlanta being the transplant city that it is, we get plenty of away team fans, and that works out mostly okay except for Cubs fans who are obnoxious. One guy did say “SUCKS!” after every Braves player was announced in the starting lineup, although for Jeff Francoeur we had to agree. After the game starting going south for our guys (kind of surprising giving the pitching matchup at the time), I couldn’t help but start planning my retorts in the event I was heckled.

We walked the mile or so back to our hotel after the game, and a Giants fan did say something to Shaun about his Braves shirt. I feel bad about it now, but I unleashed. “Hey, at least we’re still above .500.” “How’s that division going for you?” (The Giants were/are quite a few games behind their division leader, the Dodgers, who did and still do have the best record in baseball.) Sorry, Giants. I like y’all fine, especially Tim Lincecum.

Bookmark: Exclusive: The Future of Facebook Usernames - Anil Dash

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:49:11 -0400

This is so good, I had trouble picking just one quote. I'll go with this one: "People who are presently whining about how expensive it is to buy a new iPhone because they bought a new iPhone last year will have the chance to see how obnoxious and overprivileged they look, but will not take the opportunity."

Bookmark: Raul Ibanez of Philadelphia Phillies rips blogger for performance-enhancing drugs speculation - ESPN

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:03:30 -0400

Or, "Raul Ibanez of Philadelphia Phillies looks dumb and doesn't understand freedom of speech." Or, "Raul Ibanez of Philadelphia Phillies rips blogger for ripping him, and, as it turns out, two wrongs still don't make a right." Or, "Raul Ibanez of Philadelphia Phillies says dumb things, looks incredibly out of touch with the web."